Inside California Politics: Gov. Newsom’s revised budget proposal

A-Ton, we got the May Revise today, the presentation from the governor, and we learn a lot, including that the deficit has increased, though no surprise there, $31.5 billion. So take us through the highlights. Right, Nikki, and you know what? First of all, this is the May Revise. The summary version of it, all 132 pages. We're talking a $306 billion budget here. Yes, as you mentioned, that deficit is increasing since the last time the governor spoke in January, now $31.

5 billion. That deficit, he says he is working to close it. He says this is going to be a balanced budget, but to close it, yes, we have reductions, more than $5 billion in reductions. He's also saying he's going to delay spending projects. He says need to be delayed in order to close this gap. We're talking things in the environment, and projects also related to transit. As you can imagine here at the Capitol, that was not so popular when he made those announcements.

He also says this budget will benefit Californians on pressing matters, everything from homelessness to education, more than $120 billion, by the way, on K-12 education, and of course, flood protection, half a billion dollars there amid our record storms this year, Nikki. So yes, the deficit, a huge part of this budget, but also the governor's focusing on several other items he vows, will benefit Californians and address key issues facing our state. Nikki? Well, I'm listening in on the Q&A portion too, and I think you asked a really important question about trigger cuts and asked the governor to clarify. So what are trigger cuts? Because we saw and heard about these in the January budget presentation. What was the clarification the governor made today? Well, thanks, Nikki. And basically what trigger cuts are basically is it sounds cuts that can go into effect if the economy gets worse. So right now the governor says he does not plan to cut certain programs on transit and on the environment, but if the economy gets worse and if the governor and the state does not get key revenue that it anticipates to get, then the governor says he will have to cut this.

Now, the question I asked revolved around no new trigger cuts. He said there was going to be no new trigger cuts, but I was curious, does that mean there's still going to be trigger cuts? Because in January, in January, he said there would be, and today he's saying, well, there's no new trigger cuts. So I wanted to clarify, does that mean he got rid of all trigger cuts or there's just no new for the May revise that he announced on this May revision budget? And it just turns out he said no, there's no new trigger cuts, but more than three billion of trigger cuts could still go into effect if the state needs to. Very important clarification there. All right. Our eights on wallets. We appreciate your time here on Inside California Politics.

Thanks, Nikki. Thanks, everybody. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks.

Thanks. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks.

Thanks. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks.

Thanks. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks.

Thanks. Thanks.

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